American Megatrends Ships DRM BIOS

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American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) has announced a newBIOS that meets the specifications of the Trusted Computing PlatformAlliance (TCPA). The BIOS incorporates features that ensure the system’s“integrity and trustworthiness.” This is, of course, a double-edgedsword. While it’s the TCPA code is claimed to prevent tampering with asystem, it may also be configured to construe attempts to access contentin an “unapproved” manner as tampering.

One of the functions of a TCPA BIOS is to “verify the integrity of the OSloader and OS kernel.” It is therefore possible that machinesincorporating such a BIOS will refuse to boot operating systems such asBeOS, FreeBSD, or Linux and/or log attempts to boot them, effectively“blowing the whistle” on users who try to run an alternative OS. A white paperfrom AMI explains the details of the new product.

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